I’m sure almost everyone has had microwave popcorn.
Well, anyone who has had the easy to make snack has also had a hard time with
those blasted un-popped kernels. Well, this experiment is going to answer that
age-old question. Which brand off popcorn yields the least amount of un-popped
kernels?

Hypothesis

A lot of people have differing opinions on which popcorn
has the least amount of un-popped kernels. Some think Orville Redenbacher, the
expensive, “gourmet” popcorn to be the best popped kernel producer. Others
may say the under-dog, the low priced, no-name brand (like Aldi Food Company’s
“Corntown” brand) is the best. My hypothesis is that Orville Redenbacher’s
popcorn will be the best in terms of un-popped kernels, and that Aldi’s “Corntown”
Brand will be the worst in un-popped kernel amount.

Background Research

Popcorn is a type of maize which, unlike other types of
corn, pops when heated in oil or dry. It was first found and used to pop by
Native Americans thousands of years ago. The kind of popcorn most people pop in
their microwaves is the species Zea mays L subsp mays. Popcorn was
introduced to the West by Christopher Columbus in the late 15th
century. As with other corns, popcorn has a certain amount of moisture inside
itself. But, unlike other corns, popcorn has a stronger outer hull that doesn’t
let moisture escape as fast as other corn when heated.

As the kernel is heated to the boiling point, water inside
the kernel starts to turn into steam, causing pressure inside the kernel to
about 9 times the pressure of air. Inside other types of corn - as well as
damaged popcorn kernels - the steam escapes the kernel as fast as it is formed.
The difference with popcorn is that the outer hull is strong enough to hold the
steam in, until it ruptures in a small explosion and turns it inside out, to
become the white fluffy stuff, better known as popcorn!

There are two explanations to why some kernels do not pop.
One is that the popcorn kernel just doesn’t have enough moisture to turn to
steam. The other explanation is the outer hull is leaky, and causes the steam to
escape before it can become super pressurized and explode the outer hull. This
could be caused by mishandling of the kernels at the factory, or maltreatment of
the kernels during shipment. The question is which brand of popcorn handles the
kernels the best at the factory and during shipping and uses only the best corn?

I’ve found websites that
host information on experiments done by people doing the same thing I am. On one
website http://www.mercer.edu/camps/message/summer2001/summer2001-popcorn.htm
they concluded that Act II was the best popping popcorn. This website, though,
didn’t tell how long they cooked each popcorn brand, and they popped each
kernel individually. Another website http://www.k12.nf.ca/greenwood/virsci/Intermediate/popcorn/popcorn.htm
said that the best popping popcorn was Orville Redenbacher. But, their
experiment also took into account price and taste. My experiment is only
focusing on kernels.

Materials

My materials will be as following:

3 bags of Aldi brand popcorn

3 bags of Act II brand popcorn

3 bags of Orville Redenbacher brand popcorn

3 bags of Jolly Time brand popcorn

3 bags of Pop-Secret brand popcorn

Microwave

Bowl

I’ll have three trials of each type of popcorn so I can
average the amount of kernels and get the most conclusive results. I’m also
going to use the original Butter flavor of each popcorn brand so that the
results don’t change according to flavor.

Procedures

First I popped the popcorn in the microwave for 2 minutes and 15 seconds,
the recommended time for popping popcorn.

After that, I counted the un-popped kernels and recorded the results in the
data table.

I repeated steps 1 - 3 two more times for a total of 3 trails each for all
5 brands of popcorn.

Once all my results were in the data table, I averaged the 3 trials for
each brand of popcorn.

Data Tables

Kind of popcorn

Number of un-popped kernels

Average amount of un-popped kernels

Jolly Time

28

19

52

33

Orville Redenbacher

51

45

28

41 ⅓

Act II

39

25

34

32 ⅔

Pop-Secret

54

57

55

55 ⅓

Aldi

56

80

70

68 ⅔

Quantitative Data Measurement Type: Kernels of un-popped
popcorn

As you can see in this graph and in the Data Table, the
best popcorn in terms of un-popped kernels, was Act II, with Jolly Time as a
close second, followed by Orville Redenbacher, Pop-Secret and, the no-name
brand, Aldi’s “Corntown” popcorn coming in last place.

Conclusion

I thought the best popcorn with the least amount of
kernels would be Orville Redenbacher, but my hypothesis was incorrect. The best
popping popcorn is shown to be Act II.

Additional Observations

Orville Redenbacher’s popcorn was the most expensive,
and Aldi’s “Corntown” was the least expensive. Some results seemed to be
inconclusive, and unconvincing. The Jolly Time popcorn had the lowest amount of
un-popped kernels, until for some unknown reason it came up with 52 un-popped
kernels. The Orville Redenbacher suddenly got 28 at the end, when at the
beginning it was at a whopping 51 kernels. The most consistent brand was
Pop-Secret. Several variables that might have affected the results, or tainted
the results, might have been a variable amount of energy going to the microwave,
therefore cooking it differently at different times and energies. Also, I might
have missed some kernels that might have fallen out of the bowl, accidentally
been eaten, or got stuck in the bag when I poured out the popcorn into the bowl
we ate from. Over all, though (because I averaged the amount of kernels), I don’t
think any other variables greatly affected the results.

So, next time you go out to buy popcorn, look for either Act II, or Jolly
Time popcorn.